Targeting Adolescents with HIV prevention intervention in Nigeria

The period of adolescence is a transitional period that marks the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood. Adolescents’ involvement in early and risky sexual activity is well documented. In Nigeria, this group constitutes about one third of the total population, with HIV prevalence among them put at 2.9%. Comprehensive knowledge on HIV among this group is 28.8% based on the NARHS 2012 survey.

A study was conducted among adolescents in schools to evaluate the effectiveness of the Family Life and HIV Education program, a  national HIV in school youth program. The study used a multiple Treatment Design to test the effectiveness of the different in school youth intervention models. The study population was sampled from some selected schools in six states spread across the six geo-political zones of the country. While the states were selected randomly, the schools were selected based on certain criteria which include presence of trained FLHE teachers, willingness of school to participate in the study.

Results show that overall awareness of HIV is very high, 81% of respondents in the target groups have ever heard of HIV, however certain  misconceptions  about HIV is still high; 65% of them believe that HIV can be prevented through prayer, 49% of them believe that mosquitoes can transmit HIV and 49% think that HIV can be transmitted through kissing.

These findings reveal the need to strategically position prevention interventions among adolescence to address most of their misconceptions and mitigate the risk of HIV spread among this vulnerable population.